PHOTO FRIDAY: EATING TURTLE EGGS?

"Hi!" says a recently-hatched green sea turtle about to be released into the wild.

A lot of people still eat the eggs of endangered sea turtles. They say the eggs are an aphrodisiac, among plenty of other baseless, lame excuses.

At a dinner in San Salvador, we were talking to an older couple who told us they’d grown up near El Cuco, where we were heading. Over heaping plates of churrasco, we told them of our travel plans -- we would be surfing and sunset watching, and with luck, we hoped to encounter some of the turtles that frequent the area’s beaches.

The wife’s face lit up when she heard our last statement. “Oh, do you want to eat the eggs?” she said. 

Surprised, we replied that we only wanted to see the babies hatching. That would be enough for us.

Unfortunately, well-organized, sea turtle-related tourism, which benefits both local economies and the sea turtle population, hasn't become a major attraction around El Cuco yet. 

But if the beaches of Panama and Costa Rica are any indication, here's hoping El Salvador's not far behind. 

In the meantime, here's a photo of a freshly-hatched green sea turtle we met while in El Cuco. He says, "Hi!"